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 * ORACLE PROPRIETARY/CONFIDENTIAL. Use is subject to license terms.
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package javax.naming.ldap;

/**
 * This interface represents an LDAP extended operation response as defined in
 * <A HREF="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2251.txt">RFC 2251</A>.
 * <pre>
 *     ExtendedResponse ::= [APPLICATION 24] SEQUENCE {
 *          COMPONENTS OF LDAPResult,
 *          responseName     [10] LDAPOID OPTIONAL,
 *          response         [11] OCTET STRING OPTIONAL }
 * </pre>
 * It comprises an optional object identifier and an optional ASN.1 BER
 * encoded value.
 *
 * <p>
 * The methods in this class can be used by the application to get low
 * level information about the extended operation response. However, typically,
 * the application will be using methods specific to the class that
 * implements this interface. Such a class should have decoded the BER buffer
 * in the response and should provide methods that allow the user to
 * access that data in the response in a type-safe and friendly manner.
 * <p>
 * For example, suppose the LDAP server supported a 'get time' extended operation.
 * It would supply GetTimeRequest and GetTimeResponse classes.
 * The GetTimeResponse class might look like:
 * <blockquote><pre>
 * public class GetTimeResponse implements ExtendedResponse {
 *     public java.util.Date getDate() {...};
 *     public long getTime() {...};
 *     ....
 * }
 * </pre></blockquote>
 * A program would use then these classes as follows:
 * <blockquote><pre>
 * GetTimeResponse resp =
 *     (GetTimeResponse) ectx.extendedOperation(new GetTimeRequest());
 * java.util.Date now = resp.getDate();
 * </pre></blockquote>
 *
 * @author Rosanna Lee
 * @author Scott Seligman
 * @author Vincent Ryan
 * @see ExtendedRequest
 * @since 1.3
 */

public interface ExtendedResponse extends java.io.Serializable {

    /**
     * Retrieves the object identifier of the response.
     * The LDAP protocol specifies that the response object identifier is optional.
     * If the server does not send it, the response will contain no ID (i.e. null).
     *
     * @return A possibly null object identifier string representing the LDAP
     * <tt>ExtendedResponse.responseName</tt> component.
     */
    public String getID();

    /**
     * Retrieves the ASN.1 BER encoded value of the LDAP extended operation
     * response. Null is returned if the value is absent from the response
     * sent by the LDAP server.
     * The result is the raw BER bytes including the tag and length of
     * the response value. It does not include the response OID.
     *
     * @return A possibly null byte array representing the ASN.1 BER encoded
     * contents of the LDAP <tt>ExtendedResponse.response</tt>
     * component.
     */
    public byte[] getEncodedValue();

    //static final long serialVersionUID = -3320509678029180273L;
}
